Week 14 Blog Post

 Olivia Langosch

What did you do in lab today?

I was not in lab today, but after reading the slides I learned that greenhouse gasses are gasses that absorbs and re-emits infrared light. This has created more CO2 in the atmosphere. It has gone up about 10 parts per million in a year and a half. 

In the simulation, as I put the amount of greenhouse gasses to lots, it created more infrared photons. If we continue with increasing CO2 in the atmosphere, there will be more infrared photons released and back into the atmosphere, which creates more CO2 back in the atmosphere. 

What did you learn in Thursday’s discussion?

In lecture, I learned about how humans produce a lot of carbon dioxide. 25,000 parts per million. 200,000 year run of humans. Things will start to disappear that humans need in order to survive, this will make humans extinct. Snowball, major Ice Age. The Albedo Effect is when sun lets off energy, the different colors reflect differently, lighter things reflect more, air changes, wind comes with it, creating the Albedo Effect, how much radiation is reflected or absorbed. Infrared light, visible light hits the earth, each molecule vibrates from infrared light. 

Albedo = 1; completely reflects radiation 

Albedo = 0; completely absorbed radiation

Read the online textbook:

What did you learn?

I learned how climate change is human-caused. Fossil fuels release a lot of greenhouse gasses, which is what is causing the temperatures to be so warm. 

What was most helpful?

The most helpful for me was talking about greenhouse gasses because I was always confused about if that was helping the environment, or if that was bad for the environment, so reading this gave me a better understanding of greenhouse gasses in general. 

What do you need more information on?

I do not think I specifically need help with anything, just having practice problems of what we will see on the exam!